When I see young people, especially school students, they often like to ask about military life. From their collective, sensational, and Hollywood-crafted understanding gathered from video games and movies, they tend to think that we are always doing something action-packed — every single day. Even though that could be the case at hot spots and danger zones, most of our days are not like those one would see in action-packed movies or first-person shooter games. Nonetheless, all of us continue to prepare in the brotherhood of arms so we can be ready when the needs arise. That is when small, consistent, and faithful discipline needs to happen. In the same way, true, life-giving, and effective change in our spiritual life has to be consistent as we seek to be faithful and persevere, especially when it gets hard and challenging.
We often desire and expect immediate, dramatic, and significant change that can be seen, felt, and quantifiable by our standards and preferences. We get frustrated when we do not see them being delivered. Hence, resentment kicks in because we expect too much but unrealistically miss the reality of what it means to understand and seek persistent change. It takes discipline and perseverance to achieve the long-term, life-changing, and effective transformation. We might begin strong, stay the course for a little while, but then we relapse or give up when things get hard or other goods get enticing.
For example, I can share with you a personal example of my own weight loss journey because I struggle with it every day. It is a daily and lifelong struggle for me to maintain the weight in accordance with the military standards. Even though losing the needed weight in a short time was extremely hard and challenging, it is just as hard to maintain it, too. I am Asian, so I like to eat rice, noodles, and spice-based dishes, and unfortunately, all of them are heavy on carbohydrates. Being on a low-carb diet and lifestyle, it is very hard to keep the desired weight, but so easy to gain it because everything that we eat tends to be packed with carbohydrates since they act as fuel for our body.
In order to accommodate my liking and desire of carbohydrate-packed foods, I need to be consistent and persistent with my exercise schedule. I have to keep up with my morning runs as well as a HIIT (high-intensity, interval training) routine. I do not like them at all, but I have to do them in order to be healthy and regain the weight that I have lost. Furthermore, the military allows me very little room because I have to fit the given expectations and standards. With all of that in consideration, I have to keep myself accountable as well as being held responsible for my overall fitness to meet the given standards.
Nonetheless, what I have learned through weight loss and maintenance is the very interesting fact that our body takes time to adjust to the lifestyle change. Because of that particular adjustment timeframe, it gives the body a little chance for some leeway and mercy periods. It means that, if I mess up for a day or two, my daily weight-ins will fluctuate, but the overall weight will not be affected in the short run. However, it takes a good while to get back on track if the new (non-healthy) habits begin to kick in. As human beings, we get worried, anxious, and desire immediate change and results, but that is not how our body and spirit work. Both take time to make adjustments, so we have to be consistent in keeping or maintaining the routine, but also at the same time, persistent in making sure that we do not fall off the wagon and stray away too much.
Good habits are hard to begin and maintain, but poor choices catch up with us really fast, and this reality applies both to the physical and spiritual realms. It is hard because good ones are not fun, enticing, and require a lot of hard work and sacrifices. Poor ones are so enticing, alluring, and satisfying. While it might be hard to lose a bad habit or lifestyle, it is so easy to pick one up without thinking. Therefore, this is where consistent and persistent discipline needs to happen.
In a day and age when it is so easy to get whatever we want, as long as we can afford or find a means to get our way, we have to remember that real, meaningful, transformative, life-changing, and substantial changes have to begin small but with daily commitment and persistent sacrifices chosen. No change is real unless we are willing to personally decide to make a lifestyle adjustment and commitment; they will simply be an opportunity to prove or feel good about ourselves for a short time, but relapse is bound to happen. It is so easy to fall off the wagon and give up. It is easy to lose focus, get stuck with the bad habits and outcomes, and simply go back to the prior, unproductive, or destructive paths. Therefore, real change has to be personally committed and grounded in perseverance.
Young people are so passionate about certain things, but their passions are often short-lived. They give up when things do not go their way. Nonetheless, true discipline is crucial so we can continue to will to do good and keep on being faithful to what we are called to do even when it gets challenging. We have to seek and desire the greater good that is much bigger than ours, seeing the impact and result of our actions that are beyond our own immediate scope of understanding, personal good, or desirable liking and satisfaction. There are days that we do not like doing the things that are asked of us, but we do them because they are necessary. There are certain things that we do not particularly like or want, but we choose to fulfill and do them because they benefit the greater community and those who are around us, instead of our particular goods alone.
A grain of rice is small, but a bowl of rice is composed of many grains. A change might seem small and insignificant, but a daily commitment to that change creates a habit-forming lifestyle. The result of our change might not be seen immediately or noticed by others, but a persistent desire to persevere and be committed to seeking transformation is personally important. If we do not seek to change ourselves first because it is needed and important to our well-being, our passions, desires, wants, and likes will start out strong but end up being burnt out and extinguished quickly.
One of the best advice that I have received from a priest that I truly admired was, “Keep your prayers and your prayers will keep you.” What he meant by that is to persevere and be faithful to the spiritual disciplines, especially in lifting up our hearts to God — even when it gets hard. Too often, we give up when things get challenging or when life falls apart. We often stop praying when we do not get things our way or when we get too busy with other things in life. Nonetheless, we have to be disciplined and persistent in our daily prayer and spiritual exercises. It is so important to never stop praying when it gets hard!
If exercise is important to our physical health and wellbeing, imagine how much more important prayer is to our spiritual foundation and strength! If we cannot be disciplined in our prayer routine, our souls will be so weak against the attacks of the evil ones. If we do not have any spiritual strength, we will not have what is needed in order to withstand his lies, manipulations, and temptations. Just as we develop muscles through physical endurance training, we grow spiritually stronger when we learn to pray and be persistent and committed to a life of prayer.
Therefore, let us not lose focus or give up when things seem hard or life becomes too busy. While it seems easy to drop prayer in pursuit of other “effective” and more appealing solutions, our souls will slowly become crippled, despondent, hopeless, filled with despair, and ultimately die a hellish death if they are not being nourished by a prayerful life. Without prayers, we cannot find the true meaning and purpose that are grounded in Christ Jesus. Without a life of spiritual discipline, we will be too weak to resist and easily pulled all over the place by the different things of this world. Therefore, let us be persistent and committed to small, personal, sacrificial, and willing change so our lives will be grounded in His life-giving grace and supernatural love that help us to overcome all the evils of this world.